- Apr 13, 2013
- 3,147
(I was going to make some witty and enlightening preliminary comment about personal PC security to protect identity theft being meaningless in light of incidents such as the massive Target breach in the US and this one in the UK, but I'm in much too good of a mood to darken anyone's day):
Hans Patterson-Mensah, 24, was sentenced following an investigation by the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU).
The bank clerk, who worked at NatWest, conspired with fraudsters and granted them access into a branch in Staines. On one occasion Mr Patterson-Mensah accompanied an unidentified man into an interview room who inserted a KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switch into a computer which gave the criminals access to the bank’s internal systems.
The pair made entries into the computer system to make it look as if customers targeted by the fraudsters had paid large sums into their accounts, ranging from £50,000 to £100,000. These false deposits totaled £1,089,000, and the fraudsters had instant access to the money.
Bank staff spotted the fraud in their end of day audit and recovered most of the money, with only £6,000 remaining missing. Patterson-Mensah was identified on CCTV leading a man into an interview room on both 8 September and 24 August 2012, with investigations finding that the earlier attempt was a test-run for the actual attack.
Patterson-Mensah was found guilty of fraud by abuse of a position of trust following trial at The Old Bailey.
DCI Dave Carter, Head of the DCPCU, said: “This is a particularly serious crime because it involves a person in a position of trust abusing the faith placed in him to give fraudsters access to large sums of money. The vigilance of his co-workers at the bank ensured that he did not succeed, and I am pleased."
Hans Patterson-Mensah, 24, was sentenced following an investigation by the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit (DCPCU).
The bank clerk, who worked at NatWest, conspired with fraudsters and granted them access into a branch in Staines. On one occasion Mr Patterson-Mensah accompanied an unidentified man into an interview room who inserted a KVM (keyboard, video and mouse) switch into a computer which gave the criminals access to the bank’s internal systems.
The pair made entries into the computer system to make it look as if customers targeted by the fraudsters had paid large sums into their accounts, ranging from £50,000 to £100,000. These false deposits totaled £1,089,000, and the fraudsters had instant access to the money.
Bank staff spotted the fraud in their end of day audit and recovered most of the money, with only £6,000 remaining missing. Patterson-Mensah was identified on CCTV leading a man into an interview room on both 8 September and 24 August 2012, with investigations finding that the earlier attempt was a test-run for the actual attack.
Patterson-Mensah was found guilty of fraud by abuse of a position of trust following trial at The Old Bailey.
DCI Dave Carter, Head of the DCPCU, said: “This is a particularly serious crime because it involves a person in a position of trust abusing the faith placed in him to give fraudsters access to large sums of money. The vigilance of his co-workers at the bank ensured that he did not succeed, and I am pleased."
